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On March 14, 2024, representatives of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and the Helmholtz Association met with around 30 members of the Bundestag in Berlin. Prof. Josef Penninger, Scientific Director of the HZI, and Dr. Berit Lange, Acting Head of the HZI Department of Epidemiology, presented the current state of research on pandemic resilience at a parliamentary breakfast entitled "Mastering pandemics: Focus on resilience, innovation and cutting-edge international research". The patron of the event was Dr. Christos Pantazis, Member of the German Bundestag.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an important opportunistic pathogen responsible for life-threatening infections that are associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Researchers from TWINCORE, the Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research in Hannover, and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig have now been able to show that an enzyme controls virulence through modification of tRNAs.

On March 10, 2024, Prof. Tobias Welte, Director of the Clinic for Pneumology and Infectiology at Hannover Medical School (MHH), passed away unexpectedly at the age of 64. Welte was a long-standing close cooperation partner in joint research projects between the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and the MHH, which resulted in numerous publications in renowned research journals.

Despite modern immunotherapies and existing drugs, lung cancer patients often develop resistance to treatment. To close this gap, an international team including Thekla Cordes, professor for cell metabolism at Technische Universität Braunschweig at the Braunschweig Centre for Systems Biology (BRICS) and head of the research group “Cellular Metabolism in Infection” at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), as well as researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (USA) and Yale University School (USA), investigated potential targets for cancer therapies. Their results have been published in the journal Cancer Discovery.

New active substances for the treatment of resistant bacteria are needed more urgently than ever – yet only few candidates make the leap from research to clinical application. To facilitate precisely this transition, the US organization CARB-X provides targeted funding for advanced projects in antibiotics research. Saarbrücken researcher Anna Hirsch has now successfully acquired CARB-X funding for one of her innovative projects for the second time. The aim of the project, which is funded with up to 1.25 million US dollars, is to develop resistance-breaking antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial pneumonia.

The human cytomegalovirus, HCMV for short, lies dormant unnoticed in the body of most people for their entire lives. In immunocompromised individuals, however, the virus can cause life-threatening infections. It infects dendritic cells, a specific type of cell in the immune system. Although the majority of them are infected, only a few of them immediately execute the virus's genetic programme. Researchers at TWINCORE, Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research, have now been able to show which signalling pathways of the innate immune system the virus is targeting in order to have itself produced by the host cells. They have published their findings in the journal Nature Communications. The TWINCORE is a joint institution of Hannover Medical School (MHH) and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig.